New wood type print

Pavarotti quote which I took heed of today, as my best friend and I have made a resolution to meet once a week for lunch. We both work for ourselves so it's nice to take a step back, take a deep breath and relax. But most of all catch up and take time out for ourselves!
Limited edition print, just a few remaining from a recent commission. Available from my etsy shop

A colourful day at The Art Market

The Art Market was amazing, thanks to all who came by and said hello! For the first time I took my small S&B proofing press with the idea of doing a interactive wall of words. I wasn't sure how well this would work and setting type is not the quickest of jobs! Keeping it simple, the public had to think of a word to describe their Art market experience, needless to say it was mostly kids so the words got silly ;o) Totally exhausting! I had queues most of the day, so glad the kids took quick to spelling backwards! The colourful inking went down a treat and some rather silly sentences began to emerge ;-)

Great fun don't you think?

Play on...

Inspired by these in a recent  post, my new print for the Leeds Print Festival. Playing homage to vinyl and the art of the album cover. 50cm x 50cm print, eight passes on the proofing press and printed using 66 line hand carved Latin Condensed and wood furniture.
The wood type came off a kitchen ceiling in Bradford so only fitting that it made it debut in Leeds! I have a total of 56 pieces plus punctuation, it was part of a mad wood type collage and came complete with epoxy resin and bits of plaster! Operating a clean as I need to print system...
I ended up with 8 decent prints not sure whether to put the print in production or not? Whatever the outcome I had a bloody good time printing them ;)
As usual your comments good or bad are much appreciated x

when all else fails ask your blogger friends...

I decided to make the original design I made for a book into an actual print.

As this design is little more complex (the wine bottle needs to go through the press five times) I've proof printed on tracing paper first to work out the exact spacing I'll need to overlap. I can also play around with wood type for the wording this way trying out different wood type. I've cheated by scanning in the proofed type and by saving as a greyscale jpeg you can just change the colour in Adobe InDesign. This takes seconds and saves me getting full of ink!

Think I prefer the all red one? I tried the words smaller but didn't like it! Before I go and open a bottle of wine in frustration would love to know your thoughts...

Also thought of ‘in vino veritas’ which means ‘Truth in wine’ in other words it loosens the tongue but thought ‘when all else fails’ is more me ;o)

a prayer for Japan

My contribution to A Prayer for Japan organised by Blue Moon Letterpress to raise money for the orphaned children of the earthquake.

“Letterpress is a letter which reaches somebody’s heart, before art. It’s a blanket to snuggle up and wrap kindly, when we were hurt.” Blue Moon Letterpress

The deadline is the 31st August so there is still plenty of time to make a contribution, 100% of the the proceeds go towards the fund. It can be cards, a book, prints or anything that it printed letterpress it can also be something that you have already printed. So no excuses!. For more information and the address where to send to visit Letterpress of prayer

I had a revamp of my business card so it's now standard card width but square. Uses less paper, I can change the details on the back and can also use left over card stock from jobs, More eco friendly!

Paris to Milan

I was having one of those days with a to do list where I didn't know where to start! So I did something NOT on my to do list. Crazy! Screen-printing ink arrived so I thought I'd test it out on wood type on the new proofing press, but alas it dries too quick to do a large amount of wood type all at once so went back to my normal ink and proofed some on some bags which fit the press perfectly. I'm a little worried about wearing my type down by printing on fabric so I did a light impression with hard packing but I like the worn look. I also love the texture and colour of Gmund Bier paper...

Not all was lost, the bags will be a great addition to an up coming craft fair and I've also listed them in my Folksy and Etsy shops.

Having tonnes of wood type in cases I forget what I've got, so I think I'll continue this on the big proofing press, adding more cities and using all my wood type until I get an incredibly long poster, will look amazing on the studio wall. I can also label the cases to match!

I've been to London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Berlin and New York, would love to go to Paris! Which amazing cities are on your to visit list?

Now to crack that to do list...

Busy bee!

Lots of printing this week, second edition of wake up and smell the ink now printed and hopefully the ink will dry on my bags in time for Saturday's Folksy hand made market!
Printing on fabric is fun, just got to remember to do the letters the right way ;o) a little weird doing each letter at a time, so use to setting them up on the press!
Hmmm... looking at that 'T' in tea & cake and me thinks it needs to move down a little, think I'll do them in colour too.
Don't you just love that letter T? wish I had more of the alphabet...

A to Z Letterpress Poster

While I was printing a promised wood type specimen I thought I would do one highlighting the A-Z for my 4 year old's bedroom. The printed area is slightly bigger than A3 so pretty big but will fit an Ikea Ribba frame, going to try some in my shop, what are your favourite colour combinations or should I do them multi coloured... help!

LOVE IS IN AIR...

It's time to print some Valentines cards, there's nothing like some Dutch Fireball red ink to warm the heart...

Shop now open!

Inspired by the phrase "wake up and smell the coffee" for me it has to be ink - to print all day would be my idea of heaven! A4 - 3 colour linocut printed on recycled newsprint to add it's retro appearance now for sale in my shops.